Monday, July 07, 2008

I'll need a good rope, a hunting knife, and a soft piece of leather.

Ick. Monday.

I hope everybody had a wonderful 4th of July. We took our annual drive up the Columbia Gorge to Cascade Locks to picnic and watch the fireworks. We shot off a few of our own. No serious burns. Stop, drop and roll and all that.

Apologies for the randomness of this post. (Or "randal-ness" if you will, although I'm nowhere near as bright as Mr. Graves.) I've only had two large cups of double-black coffee this morning so I'm nowhere near as caffeinated as usual.

We went and visited/picnicked with a long-time friend of mine near Salem. The daughter beguiled a deer into eating jicama from her hand and we reacquainted ourselves with some folks I hadn't seen in years.

We brought the Betsy Ross flag (13 stars in a ring) and the Norwegian flag (in honor of some Norwegian visitors) to hoist into the air. Our host was way ahead of us flying the Bennington 76 flag. It seems the America of the 50 star flag is starting to seem a bit alien to some of us in the surveillance age.

And now I hear that the government is trying to give the FBI the power to spy on people with no cause. That scares the hell out of me because I'd probably be one of the people they'd pick on for sure because I won't be sheeple-like enough to suit them. 1984 anybody? Big brother wants to watch you legally!

I'm with you 100% on the nuts-kicking thing. What liberality brings up simply illustrates their plan of death by a thousand cuts. I'm sure each of us still hears from the wingnuts we know variations on "what can't you do that you couldn't before, blah blah blah."

Sure, if I don't make waves, and reasonably white and are of low-enough socioeconomic status but not so destitute to the point of desperation, sure, I can probably live my life as before, simply paying more for everything. That's their goal.

And you're far too kind. I just steal from good authors. Guess which ones!

It is a bit depressing. It isn't their flag, though. It certainly doesn't stand for this government.

But perhaps going retro isn't a bad idea...

liberality-

If you hadn't been minding your own business and liberal you wouldn't of invited the government's attention.

It really is very, very frustrating about the spying. Doesn't anybody in government get it?

Pop-

That sounds like the perfect holiday- doing nothing.

randal-

I'm sure each of us still hears from the wingnuts we know variations on "what can't you do that you couldn't before, blah blah blah."

That's so true but what gives me a chuckle of irony is that these people often posed as strong civil liberty types- especially during the Clinton administration. Now they could give a rat's ass.

The best thing about an Obama presidency is that even if he wanted to spy on us in the same way Bush has (and it sadly appears he might) the media and the right wing who run the country will shut him down. Our wingnut friends will suddenly discover the 4th Amendment.